Tell Me Your Secrets (Part 2 of 2)

Posted on 16 Jun 2017 @ 9:57am by Chief Warrant Officer 3 Lamar Darius & Vice Admiral Colin McDermott
Edited on on 16 Jun 2017 @ 3:42pm

2,258 words; about a 11 minute read

Mission: Episode 15 - Emanation
Location: Earth - San Francisco, Starfleet Headquarters
Timeline: MD 02, 0942 hrs

[CONTINUED]

"I'm just a chief, sir," Lamar began to preface, "but from what I saw and the things that we all heard, they're their own world. Got their own fleet with old and new Starfleet, Romulan, Klingon, and Ferengi ships. And a bunch of other types. They have a government, structure, supplies, infrastructure...but they're not going too good. Shitty living conditions and a lot of poverty for a lot of them. Probably because they keep themselves hidden and don't have any supply trains," he speculated.

"Do you think they'd be amenable to a peaceful evacuation of the planet?" McDermott asked. "More to the point, how did you all get off Kreanus?"

Peaceful evacuation... the chief repeated in his head. Not a chance in hell from what he'd seen and heard, but fortunately the second question the admiral had posed was easier to answer. Just marginally.

"They let us go," Darius answered. "We had to do a favor for them and in return, the Romulan lady in charge of the colony told us we could go free and come back to the Federation when we were finished."

"A favor?" McDermott looked unamused. Skeptical, and distinctly unamused. "Just what sort of a favor were you supposed to do?"

"Uh...go to Qo'noS and negotiate with their leaders on their behalf, I guess. That's what we were told," Darius replied. "Some kind of blood feud between one of their own and someone in the High Council that we had to mediate." The complexities of interstellar politics had never been one of Lamar's strong suits, nor did he really care to learn about Klingon politics.

"I see. And did you?" McDermott asked.

Darius seemed a bit uncertain about how to answer and gave a short pause. "Did we what? Go to Qo'noS, or mediate the dispute?"

"That was less than clear of me, sorry. Both. Did you mediate the dispute, one. Did you go to Qo'noS, two." McDermott replied.

"Well, we didn't get to Qo'noS, that's for damn sure," the chief said with an exasperated breath. "We got into the Neutral Zone then the shit hit the fan and there was another battle. Then the two generals duked it out; one died and the other won. So I guess that was mediation?" he said.

The Admiral gave a dry chuckle. "Yeah, I know what you mean. The Klingons make diplomacy so...confusing. But OK, you did not get to Qo'noS, therefore it makes sense why our embassy there never heard a word. Meanwhile, the dispute in question was mediated through combat, I suppose. Moving along. So there's another battle and the general who was taking you to Qo'noS dies in a duel, for lack of a better word. What happened after that? Were you picked up by the KDF?"

"Well, actually..." And this was where it got complicated, "the general that was killed -- the Kreanus one -- didn't lead us. Admiral Saalm was our general, wearing a full Klingon uniform and everything. The Klingon guy, I think his name was Ko'raH, showed up outta nowhere in a cloaked ship when we got intercepted by the KDF ship." Lamar paused and looked up again while re-adjusting himself in his seat. "Sorry, sir, it's still confusing to me. I was just a chief and I don't know all the details to explain it."

Colin McDermott knew better than to let his jaw drop upon hearing of a Starfleet flag officer in a KDF uniform with KDF General's insignia, but that didn't mean that behind his poker face he wasn't stunned. "Fair enough that it's still confusing, but that's...That's a hell of a detail to leave out, Chief. So we had Admiral Saalm playing Klingon General, a cloaked ship showing up with a real Klingon General, and a KDF ship - an allied ship - with another real Klingon General. Am I right so far?"

"There were two cloaked ships, sir," Darius corrected. "Actually, three. Well, four if you include our vessel. We went into the NZ under cloak, but then we were exposed and attacked by the High Council general's ship. That crippled us. But then, the other general -- the Kreanan Klingon one -- decloaked behind us and attacked the KDF general. And then, after it was all over and the guy Ko'raH was killed, another cloaked ship came in. That was Medara's ship, the Romulan warbird that took us back to Federation space. Medara was the Kreanus colony commander. She ran the show, I think."

"....Okay, that explains a few things. So did you at all attempt to hail or otherwise communicate with the High Council member's ship? Try to identify yourselves at Starfleet?" McDermott looked curious as he asked this.

Lamar shook his head. "I don't know, sir. I was below decks when it all happened and I didn't know what was going on on the bridge."

"Understood. OK then, so the commander of the Kreanus colony shows up in a warbird. What happens then?" McDermott asks.

Darius nervously fiddled with his fingertips again. "We were evac'd from our ship and beamed aboard the warbird. Then they...took care of us for a few hours while they took us back to Federation space."

"You're nervous, Chief. That, and you're making only limited eye contact. May I ask what's wrong?" McDermott did his best to be empathetic.

A short moment of silence once again ensued. Lamar felt frustrated by all of this but also knew it was it was necessary. Fundamentally, though, he didn't like being grilled about things he didn't know. The frustration quickly led to anger.

"You're asking me questions I don't know the answer to," he started with a huff. "Putting me in this interrogation room just like the Kreanans did to our crew on their world." He looked up into the other man's eyes. "I'm not nervous, you're making me nervous," he refuted, "sir."

McDermott smiled. "And here you were, giving off all the indications of someone trying to hide things," he noted simply. "I'm not going to make apologies for our approach, Chief; you lose a ship, interrogations should be expected. You lose a ship and get brought home by Romulans, doubly so. Now, let's move on. At any time in Romulan custody, whether on Kreanus or later, was any attempt made to recruit Starfleet personnel or attached civilian personnel as intelligence sources, whether against their will or not?"

Part of Lamar wanted to argue and give the flag officer in front of him a piece of his mind. The other part knew better and helped calm himself as the interrogation quickly progressed. "You mean did the Kreanus people try to recruit us? No...not that I know of. Well, not for intel. Just for work duty on their colony." No senior member of Kreanus had approached him and he hadn't heard any rumors of anyone being coerced into giving out confidential information. And then he remembered the incidents aboard the Klingon ship right after Galileo had been destroyed. "Actually, that might be wrong. When we were first captured after escaping our ship after it was destroyed, we were on a Klingon battlecruiser. The general guy, the same Ko'raH, had his people pluck a few of us from the brig and torture them. I wasn't one of them but we could all hear the screams. Not sure what they wanted but it might have been information."

"With them, it's awfully hard to tell sometimes, but your best bet is to figure it was, and that the sadistic pleasure was just an extra," McDermott replied, bluntly. "But OK, so nothing from the Romulans, just the Klingons working with said Romulans. Were any medical procedures performed on you without your consent during this whole experience? Anything that came back odd when you went through medical checks on the Chaka? Maybe it didn't seem odd at the time, but does when you think about it."

Medical procedures... he thought to himself. He didn't remember anything happening to him or any missing periods of time. He slowly shook his head. "No. Nothing like that," he answered. "A little malnutrition but I think we all had to deal with that."

"Okay. From the time of the loss of the Galileo, did Admiral Saalm or anyone below him in the chain of command issue any orders that seemed illegal, immoral, or in any way contrary to Federation law or Starfleet regulation?" McDermott asked. They were in a routine, now.

"I don't think so. I mean, yeah there's a few things that we were ordered to do that Starfleet didn't approve of, like going to Qo'noS in a Klingon battlecruiser. But those decisions were all above my grade," Darius answered. "I followed the capn' and XO's orders because I thought they knew what they were doing. They seemed like they had good reasons for everything they did which was good enough for me."

"We've had reports of Starfleet vessels in the vicinity of the Paulson Nebula attacked by Klingon vessels. Can you shed any light on those incidents, Chief?" McDermott didn't sound like he was fishing.

As little as the chief knew about such past incidents, he could only surmise it had to do with General Ko'rah. After all, his own ship had fallen victim to such a trap, and it stood to reason that other Starfleet ships might have met the same fate. "Might have been the general," Darius answered with another shrug, this one of uncertainty. "Word on the street was that some of the Kreanus people we met were former Federation and Starfleet, but they'd been captured and brought to the colony like we had. Probably had something to do with the Klingon guy, Ko'raH. He was their fleet commander...I think? And their colony was in pretty bad shape so it might have been a way to get new supplies and tech."

"And what about the attack on the USS Sentinel, which happened rather after the Galileo's destruction? Able to help there?"

Oh, the chief thought to himself once he realized the true nature of the question. "Yea, that was us," he quickly admitted somewhat matter-of-factly accompanied by a bit of an unconcerned demeanor. "But that wasn't near the nebula and we didn't attack them. They fired first."

"I see. Was this before, or after, you attempted to communicate with the Sentinel?" McDermott asked.

Thinking back to the incident, Lamar didn't remember much communication taking place. It was all a bit of a hectic moment, and it directly preceded their orbital slingshot between the two stars. He shook his head once and said, "Not sure. I wasn't on the bridge, I was below decks manning my post in the shuttlebay. I don't know what sort of comms went on. Nothing was broadcast ship-wide except the call to red alert."

"I see. With that said, keep going."

"Well, that was it, really," Darius continued. "We disabled the Starfleet ship that was trying to track us and then resumed our course to Qo'noS. When we entered the Neutral Zone, that was then the two generals duked it out, like I was saying earlier. Oh, and right before that happened, there was some sort of mutiny attempt on the ship. One of our first officers -- a Klingon commander who'd been serving on the ship for a while -- he tried to kill the cap'n and take over the ship. Not really sure why but I think he was probably loyal to General Ko'raH."

"So there was a mutiny attempt. Did any Starfleet personnel or Federation citizens participate on the side of the mutineers?" McDermott asked.

Again, Lamar tried his best to recall what he'd personally seen versus some of the rumors that'd floated around in the following days. He couldn't help but distinctly remember getting word that his department chief had been placed in the brig immediately afterwards. "I don't think so. At least, I didn't see any of us siding with them," he began to answer. "But...Ensign Derani was put in the brig under guard for a few days right after that. She was my chief. I don't know what happened but the word was that she'd been a part of it. Somehow."

"Good to know." McDermott looked thoughtful for a moment. "That'll be the end of my questions for right now, Chief. The no-contact order remains in effect until everybody's interviews have been completed. You'll be assisting on Starfleet Academy's flight line during the work days to come during that period - it'll mostly be admin work, but some instructor time might become available if you have the appropriate certifications, say if an instructor has to call in sick."

Letting out a heavy breath of relief, Lamar reached up with the cuff of his uniform to wipe the tiny beads of perspiration from his forehead. He wasn't if they'd intentionally increased the temperature as part of some psychological interrogation technique, or if he'd just been too on edge the entire time.

"Yes, sir," he said with curt nod to the admiral across from him. Darius then rose from his chair and stood at attention, waiting to be formally dismissed from the room.

"You're dismissed, Chief," McDermott said finally, before sitting back and watching impassively as the Warrant Officer left.

[OFF]

--

VADM Colin McDermott
Chief of Starfleet Personnel
Starfleet Command

CWO3 Lamar Darius
Support Craft Pilot
[PNPC Saalm]

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